East Midlands Railway Trust/GCR (Nottingham)

We all know the dangers of interpreting the Google Maps but you're right, its more labour intensive than whatever system is in place.

 

Why on earth have they raised concerns about the quarry traffic in their statement then, if it is so impractical?

 

That is the million dollar question! Even if it was a serious suggestion any impact would be minimal as it would only need access to about 400m of the existing track to the north of the A 60 bridge. The only possibility apart from muddying the waters is they fear that they would have no control over this little bit, hence the Trojan horse comment.

 

You’re right on the impact to the NHR, but the impact to the GCR as a whole would be much greater.


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Agreed, and not for the good. Anyway the scheme never grew legs once it was thought about many years ago.

 

There's another post been made on the NHR Facebook page this evening, encouragingly more... peaceful in tone.

I'm not sure, however, how their statement "Nottingham needs an independent... heritage railway headquartered at Ruddington" squares with, almost in their very next breath, their mention of "the long term aim of reunification". They've also said that the GCR Plc is requesting/ demanding that the NHR give up all claim to any name or trademark that includes the words 'Great Central Railway'.

 

I think as much as anything else the focus on a a Nottinghamshire independent heritage railway is aimed at improving local attitudes and sentiment to the railway in the medium term as they seek to get back on their feet before said reunification. Whether it is achieving that aim or that aim is being hampered by other things is another matter of course...!

 

I thought that was why they wanted the change of name to the NHR? I recall that the GCR had said that it had been suffering from people confusing the two operations and the reputation of the GCR had been impacted by poor experiences from the GCR(N), if so, then I believe the directors of the GCR have a duty to act. However we all hope that there is a lot going on to resolve the situation and make progress towards an even better Great Central.

 

The problem with the Great Central Railway name is that it is the registered Company name of the Loughborough-Leicester operation and whilst there haven't been any problems with the use of that name for both preserved sections of the line in the past and the situation has been "lived with", the ORR related events of the past 12-18 months with the northern operation has given the potential for that GCR name to be "tainted", so GCR (1976) Ltd are within their rights to protect that name. Whilst we, as enthusiasts, know the difference between the two operations and its link to historical operations for the past 125+ years that used that name, the "general public", for want of a better description, aren't likely to be aware of that, so they are more likely to think they are part and parcel of the same operation. This certainly hasn't been helped by sloppy journalism and social media wibble that don't differentiate sufficiently between the operations. It's no different to me opening a corner shop and calling myself "Tesco" or "Asda" as the legal departments of such firms would be down on me like a ton of bricks...
As Phil says, they have changed their name to NHR, so why are they even mentioning anything about legal correspondence in their posting, or are they still trying to promote the "bullied party" theme to try and get some sympathy (and failing miserably in my case...). All they needed to do is reply to the GCR and say they have changed their name, so the matter is resolved anyway.....

 

Having read the recent facebook post I was encouraged by the change in tone and the fact there is a meeting between EMRT and NHR scheduled. It also says that the site is a lot tidier and training/certification is proceeding with the aim of getting ORR approval for restarting trains operating...well done all concerned.
Hopefully somebody local can post some new pictures?

 

You’ll notice that there has been no denial of the NHR’s twin allegations, that EMRT and GCR plc are conspiring to rid themselves of the NHR so that they might sell off parts of the NTHC for development, and to use the main line connection for heavy freight from the south.

This latter suggestion would ultimately be as disastrous for the GCR’s heritage operation as it would be in the near future for the NHR which would be sacrificed to facilitate it.

 

Well the EMRT and NHR are now having a meeting under the chair of the local MP!

 

And the problem with *this* argument is that it has also been part of the legal name of the NHR for something like 30 years (and remains so). And the PLC only registered the trademark 6 years ago. I’m no legal expert but I’m pretty sure you can’t just trademark another company’s existing name and then demand that they change it.

 

I see that the thread title has been changed, but shouldn't it be EMRT/NHR? Either way, I'm sure there are talks going on between the various groups and most of it is remaining out of social media......which is frustrating at times, but probably for the best to get an amicable resolution and move "Forward"!

 

Can I please object to the fact that this thread has been renamed to East Midlands Railway Trust / North GCR? I think that is a less than helpful name change. The railway itself is the Nottingham Heritage Railway. The EMRT is the landlord, but I do not think they should be prime identifier for the line. And as the GCR have made a legal request that the NHR make no association with the term GCR, that probably shouldn't be used to identify it. Perhaps 'Nottingham Heritage Railway (ex GCRN)' would be more appropriate.

 

This wouldn't be the first thread to have its name changed unilaterally and with no explanation

I do quite like the convention of having the landlord name as thread title. Now, I'm just off to peruse the Dorset Council thread - the Somerset County Council thread is down a rabbit hole at the moment ...

Tom

 

Warning - thread drift!

Whilst we're on about name changes - please could "SVR locomotive Newsy News" be changed to simply "SVR Locomotive News" I believe that the present title was coined by someone no longer on the forum and was an illusion to a third-rate but popular comedian at the time, who has since also largely disappeared!

 

Those threads where the trackbed is owned by numerous people are going to have some very long titles - you'll have to read the ex-RVR and L&B threads in widescreen format.